LG Nexus 4 Battery Life Isn’t That Great At All

We are all really excited for November 13th when Google will be launching most and if not all of its Nexus devices, specifically the LG manufactured Nexus 4. Concerns about this device don’t lay with the hardware, but the battery life specifically. Sadly, early results and looks at the battery aren’t fairing that well. Based on some tests that were unbiased and pretty scientific from AnandTech, the battery life on the very anticipated Nexus 4 will leave consumers wishing they had more. AnandTech did admit that they did not run through the entire battery life suite just yet, but they did make sure that it was fully tested, recorded, and the results published with the most important category.

This latest test is a whole lot different than the tests that were previously taken on the battery, if you are familiar with their previous methods at least. AnandTech changed their battery tests to better par up with the typical smartphone usage that happens these days. This new method they tried consisted of regular use of loading web pages at a fixed interval until the battery died with all displays calibrated at 200 nits. As was mentioned earlier, their older testing method was focusing on trying to closely mimic typical smartphone usage and usually involved changes to the network activity and the load on the processor or CPU. In the end of the test, what they ended up with was a extremely good representation of constant, heavy usage beyond the simple and regular browsing.

These results aren’t favorable at all for those that were hoping for a good long session off of a single charge. Considering that this handset isn’t even an LTE device, these results, I would say, are very abysmal. The Nexus 4 even scored below the LTE-enabled Galaxy S III.

All in all, the Nexus 4’s battery life is pretty disappointing. I guess it really depends on how important battery life is to you and how much you use that battery life. While the Nexus 4 has some pretty fantastic hardware, the tradeoff seems hardly worth it to me. Of course, everyone’s opinion is different, and so is their battery usage. Fortunately, a lot of us are very close to chargers, so the battery shouldn’t be a huge deal, although I do like not having to have my phone plugged into a wall at all times. Whatever the case, lets hope that the battery fairs a lot better upon launch than what the test results are providing us. While tests and studies can provide a lot of insight, it is only at launch that an official opinion can be made of the battery.

I will personally be looking forward to what the Galaxy Note II can offer in terms of battery life on November 9th when it launches on AT&T’s network.

All of this said, how important is battery life to you? Do you think that based on the tests provided that you will be able to get a good day out of your battery? Sound off in the comments below!

This is pre-release software/firmware… and hasnt fully been optimized and the like…. the battery life is better than it appears to be here

Anonymous

Well, the Nexus 4 does have a 2100mAh battery, the iPhone 5 has a 1440mAh… so we can’t really judge until everything is tweaked and ready for the public. Google is known to work on things until the very last minute with tweaks and then even provide necessary updates afterwards too. So lets wait on the judgement until it’s ready to use.

corwin1681

Funny how this bench mark chart conveniently doesn’t mention phones that have way better battery life than iPhone… (Just two of top of my head: droid razr Maxx and Maxx HD)

dave

This is pre-release software/firmware… and hasnt fully been optimized and the like…. the battery life is better than it appears to be.

EXACTLY, it annoys me to hell that these reviews happen on a product that is outstanding.

I hope all these tests on are done on official release and all these bad reviewers can eat shi*

Amy

How the heck does the Iphone 5 get just a bit over 1/2 the battery life of the Iphone 5 LTE? That makes no sense. Also, lots of those numbers just don’t pass the smell test. 3.35hrs on the galaxy nexus??? no way.

Chaco

Could the reviewer do us a few tests??

1- could you install battery monitor widget and post the mAh usage of the phone on idle and during heavy/normal use? I am trying to determine if this phone is a hog like the Gnex (1200 2200 mah draw under heavy load and < 90 mah load in idle)

2- does the phone gets hot like the GNex did under heavy use? sitting outside with 20 minute usage will get my phone quite hot (140*+)

3- what kind of screen on times do you see on a charge? Gnex currently sees <2hrs

Thanks

Prolific666

Its really weird that the verge has a much different view. With Real world usage after 10 hours the battery was at 45%… eventually making it to 16 hours. Makes me wonder if someone had a defective battery or was running on some early early beta software.

Kiernan

Looks like bulls*** to me.
How did the iPhone 5 last longer on LTE then when it wasnt on LTE and I have the Galaxy Nexus currently and the battery life isn’t amazing but 3.35 hours…. that’s a lie

Anonymous

Sorry to tell you but it won’t make much difference. LG and Google had to cut costs somewhere and they already took out LTE because of battery life.

Anonymous

I hope you realize not all LTE chips are the same. Please stop talking if you know nothing. You can be a blind Apple hater but Apple actually improves every iPhone.

Kiernan

I do not hate Apple, and an LTE chip is an LTE chip either way its going to use up more power if its being used then if its not being used

bill

this isn’t really true–lte got a bad wrap for battery life because the first lte phones like the thunderbolt were awful regardless. lte radios actually use far less power when active than 3g radios